US Authorities Unveil Plan To Reduce Identity Theft

by Glen Shapiro, LawAndTax-News.com, New York

25 April 2007

US Attorney General, Alberto R. Gonzales and Federal Trade Commission Chairman, Deborah Platt Majoras on Monday announced the completion of the President’s Identity Theft Task Force strategic plan to combat identity theft.

The plan focuses on ways to improve the effectiveness of criminal prosecutions of identity theft; enhance data protection for sensitive consumer information maintained by the public sector, private sector, and consumers; provide more comprehensive and effective guidance for consumers and the business community; and improve recovery and assistance for consumers.

“Identity theft is a crime that goes far beyond the loss of money or property,” observed AG Gonzales. “It is a personal invasion, done in secret, that can rob innocent men and women of their good names. The strategic plan we are releasing today is part of a comprehensive effort to fight this crime, protect consumers, and help victims put their lives back together.”

The recommendations outlined in the Strategic Plan include the following:

• To reduce the unnecessary use of Social Security numbers by federal agencies, the most valuable commodity for an identity thief;
• To establish national standards that require private sector entities to safeguard the personal data they compile and maintain and to provide notice to consumers when a breach occurs that poses a significant risk of identity theft;
• To implement a broad, sustained awareness campaign by federal agencies to educate consumers, the private sector and the public sector on methods to deter, detect and defend against identity theft; and
• To create a National Identity Theft Law Enforcement Center to allow law enforcement agencies to coordinate their efforts and information more efficiently, and investigate and prosecute identity thieves more effectively.

The Task Force’s recommendations also include several legislative proposals designed to fill the gaps in current laws by criminalizing the acts of many identity thieves, and ensuring that victims can recover the value of the time lost attempting to repair damage inflicted by identity theft.

These proposals include the following actions:

• Amending the identity theft and aggravated identity theft statutes to ensure that identity thieves who misappropriate information belonging to corporations and organizations can be prosecuted;
• Adding new crimes to the list of offenses which, if committed by identity thieves in connection with the identity theft itself, will subject those criminals to a two-year mandatory sentence available under the “aggravated identity theft” statute;
• Broadening the statute that criminalizes the theft of electronic data by eliminating the current requirement that the information must have been stolen through interstate communications;
• Amending existing statutes to assure the ability of federal prosecutors to charge those who use malicious spyware and keyloggers; and
• Amending the cyber-extortion statute to cover additional, alternate types of cyber-extortion.

The Identity Theft Task Force was established by Executive Order of the President on May 10, 2006, and is now comprised of 17 federal agencies and departments, including the Securities and Exchange Commission.

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